Vodafone Greece announced the construction of an important undersea fiber optic infrastructure for global connectivity. It is the neutral subsea fiber optic cable sealing station in Tympaki, Crete, aiming to connect Greece to some of the largest international cable systems and upgrade the country’s capabilities on the global digital map.
The station will be connected to Heraklion through the construction of a new 30 km pipeline and 280 km of new fiber optics, making Tympaki station a central hub of connectivity in the region.
The telecommunications company has agreed on the sealing of the 2Africa submarine cable system, which will start operating in 2023. It will be fully operational by 2024, when its sealing in Crete will also be completed.
2Africa is one of the largest submarine cable projects in the world, extending to 45,000 km, and connects Europe (via Egypt), Asia (via Saudi Arabia) and Africa. The system includes 16 pairs of optical fibers and provides more capacity (up to 180 Tbps) than the total combined capacity of all submarine cables serving Africa today.
The 2Africa investment is implemented by a consortium consisting of eight international partners: China Mobile International, Meta, Bayobab (formerly MTN GlobalConnect), Orange, Center 3, Telecom Egypt, Vodafone Group and WIOCC. According to international studies (RTI study), the economic impact of 2Africa will range between 24.1 billion euros and 34 billion euros.
Grid Telecom (a subsidiary of ADMIE) also participates in this important submarine cable, and more specifically in its branching to Crete, in collaboration with Telecom Egypt. The Greek company with its participation in the branching of 2 Africa acquires significant cable capacity to Egypt, Italy and France.
It should be noted that Grid Telecom had been interested in the construction of the subsea fiber optic cable sealing station in Tympaki, Crete, however, Vodafone Greece prevailed.
The agreements announced by Grid also include its participation in the construction of the submarine optical fiber cable system called Andromeda which will interconnect Greece, Cyprus and Israel, in collaboration with Tamares Telecom.
